Serie A teams, get your shopping bags ready! The mid-season transfer window officially opened last
week (January 1st), and will remain open until January 31st 19:00 CET. It is a busy time for
Italian clubs, who on top of getting ready for the return of Serie A next week-end, have their
scouts/negotiatiors/investors working full time [.
•Even though we're still months from the start of Euro 2008, it's evidently not too early to
think about World Cup qualifying, as the schedule of qualifying fixtures was announced today (and
how delightfully optimistic of C4 to illustrate their story with a picture of Roberto
Donadoni).
Sory this is so epic, I'm headed to the airport and wanted to pull together as much as I could
before I'm at the mercy of the FAA and the weather. God only knows when I'll get home.
•RomaChris has done a great Roma rumor roundup, including such diverse (and occasionally
bizarre) names as Arjen Robben, Santiago Solari, Fabio
Liverani and Javier Saviola.
Milan not only scored at the San Siro, but they won there, too. And it's all down to
Pato! ALL HAIL PATO! Wait, what? You say Ronaldo scored twice,
and that Pato didn't sprout wings and fly around the ground while choirs of angels sang his
praises? Seriously? But .
Only no more than 24 hours until the end of January transfer window, but there's still
no real sign of any new player to come to St. James' Park.
The latest news is we are about to continued Glenn Roeder's effort to sign Derby County's young
midfielder Giles Barnes out from Pride Park.
If you've not gathered it from how I talk about him whenever he's mentioned here, I have an
irrational affection for Riccardo Zampagna. He's an uncompromising, grumpy bastard
who looks like a longshoreman/mob enforcer and usually plays like one, with a lot of strength and
power, and yet is capable (even now, as an old man) of moments of completely absurd near-grace on
the pitch.
